Boycott Liberals’ job grant bullying, London’s Catholic bishop urges

A national furor over a federal summer jobs program has hit home in Southwestern Ontario, with the head of the Catholic church in the region calling for a boycott and insisting Catholic churches won’t be “bullied.”

Bishop Ronald Fabbro, in a strongly worded open letter to 118 parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, slams a Canada Summer Jobs Grants program condition that he says requires applicants to attest support for human rights, including “reproductive rights.”

Fabbro, in the letter sent out Tuesday, says that includes “the right to safe and legal abortions,” though those words aren’t in the attestation on the application form but are in the applicant guide.

“Expecting such an attestation to get a job grant is in violation of some of the rights that are actually found in the Charter (of Rights and Freedoms),” Fabbro said in the statement to be announced at services at diocese parishes this weekend.

Religious groups have relied heavily on the grants to hire help for summer camps, daycares, drop-in centres and other programs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have come under fire for the attestation, with hundreds of churches and faith groups who hire summer help saying they feel they’re being forced to sign a statement that runs against their beliefs.

A Toronto anti-abortion group has filed a court case arguing its Charter rights are being violated by this attestation.

Federal officials have said the intent of the regulation was to restrict organizations from using federal funds for activities such as graphic anti-abortion protests.

But faith-based groups are unhappy about being asked to align with the idea of reproductive rights.

Fabbro said the diocese won’t apply for money to support student summer jobs, such as maintaining archives and information technology and staffing in summer camps. The boycott also applies to Catholic parishes that run summer camps and other programs that employ students.

Fabbro acknowledged the summer jobs are valuable for young people, saying “many wonderful opportunities may be lost.”

The diocese has calculated the summer jobs would normally get about $35,000 in funding from the grants program, so Catholic parishes are being asked to take up special collections in February to replace the grant money.

Last year, groups in London and area ridings received close to $4 million through the program.

Last month, the Canadian Conference of Bishops, along with leaders from evangelical, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim faith communities, issued a statement asking the government to back down, arguing the statement on reproductive rights forces applicants to renounce their beliefs.

“The promise of a free and democratic society is that there be no religious or ideological tests or conditions to receiving government benefits or protection,” it said.

Julia Beazley, policy director with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, said her group has received concerned inquiries from about 300 churches and faith groups. She said many are still “agonizing” over their response before the program deadline, extended to Friday.

Beazley said a minor change in wording in the application dealing with respect to the law and human rights could eliminate the objections from faith groups.

“The government can’t require citizens to be subject to a values test to get funding. . . . They could have made it clear what activities they were willing to fund and not fund,” she said.

She said the Evangelical Fellowship is so far not advising faith groups to boycott the program, but suggests they register their objections by including an “alternate attestation” saying they’ll abide by all human rights laws that apply to their situation.

But in his letter Fabbro rejected the “alternate attestation.”

“We will not be bullied into even the appearance of collusion on the issue. While some may take an alternative path, we can make a powerful statement by saying ‘no.’ ”

“Bishop Fabbro gave it a lot of thought and came to the decision, that in good conscience we could not apply for these grants.”

Couto said the Catholic summer camps and other summer jobs “are not dedicated to advancing pro-life arguments.”

London North Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos defends the jobs grant program, saying the restrictions were only intended to preserve basic rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He said the restrictions only target organizations that distribute graphic images of aborted fetuses or which refuse to accept LGBT youth in their programs.

“This is not about beliefs and values. It strictly focuses on activities that run counter to Charter protections,” he said.

Fragiskatos said the summer jobs program created 500 jobs and distributed more than $1 million in his riding alone last year.

But he said the government is concerned about organizations covertly working anti-abortion advocacy into an unrelated activity, such as a summer camp.